On November 30, 1999, protests against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in downtown Seattle result in the cancellation of some WTO events and in vandalism. What appears to be a hands-off policy by Seattle Police is actually a department unprepared for the amount of disruption and property damage downtown. Mayor Schell declares a state of emergency, establishes a curfew, and requests the assistance of the Washington National Guard and the Washington State Patrol. Exhausted police run out of riot control chemicals and have to be resupplied by other agencies. After dark, the police chase protesters into residential areas of Capitol Hill.

6:00 am

"Shut Down the WTO- Mass Nonviolent Direct Action" is scheduled and people begin to gather at Steinbreuck Park near the Pike Place Market. (Sponsored by Global Action, Direct Action Network, Earth First, and others.)

7:30 am

Students from Seattle Central Community College start marching toward downtown.

8:00 am

Youth Caucus Assembly/March and Rally is scheduled at the Filipino Community Center, 5740 Martin Luther King Blvd.

8:00 am

WTO Strategic Overview is scheduled at Westin Hotel by the Seattle Host Organization.

About 20 protesters dressed in black throw eight metal newspaper boxes into 5th Avenue, but are chased away by other protesters. The protesters in black join approximately 50 others in similar clothing near the Washington Athletic Club in the 1500 block of 5th Avenue.

9:00 am

Teach-in on human rights and the WTO is scheduled at the First United Methodist Church, 811 5th Avenue. (Sponsored by Peoples Decade of Human Rights Education.)

9:00 am

Hundreds of students gather in Red Square at the University of Washington. The crowd grows to several thousand and then marches across the University Bridge towards downtown.

Soon after protesters block the 6th Avenue and Pike Street, about a dozen young men and women clad head-to-toe in black, with black masks and combat boots, throw newspaper boxes and garbage cans into the street. Other protesters shout, "No violence, no violence."

9:15 am

Nearly 50 demonstrators march down Pike Street from 6th Avenue to the beat of their small drum corps. Some carry dark green flags with black suns. It is principally these protesters, sometimes swelling to 100, who break windows throughout downtown. They spray-paint the anarchist logo (an A in a circle) and puncture the tires of limousines and eight police cars.

9:30 am

Demonstrators begin massing at key intersections around the Paramount Theatre and the Convention Center.

9:30 am

The head of maintenance for the Pike Place Market talks Anarchists out of vandalism there.

10:00 am

AFL-CIO People's Rally and March begins at Memorial Stadium. (Sponsored by AFL-CIO.)

10:00 am

The WTO Opening ceremony is postponed by protest action which prevents delegates from entering the Paramount Theatre.

10:00 am

Attempting to clear a corridor to the Paramount Theatre for delegates, police in body armor fire tear gas.

10:00 am

Police are unable to form safe-passage corridors for dignitaries or to protect them from hecklers.

10:00 am

Police clear the intersection of 6th Avenue and Union Street by firing tear gas into the crowd from their armored vehicle. Demonstrators throw back the sticks from their signs.

10:00 am

WTO delegates are told to stay in their hotels.

10:30 am

Police clear a crowd at 6th Avenue and University Street with tear gas. Protesters who have chained themselves together do not move. Other protesters provide them with water and treatment for the effects of the crowd-ontrol agents.

11:30 am

"France and the WTO" luncheon and discussion is scheduled at the World Trade Center West, 2200 Alaskan Way. (Sponsored by French American Chamber of Commerce.)

11:30 am

Police attempt to clear the street at the Sheraton Hotel, 6th Avenue and Pike Street. Officers carry protesters off the street. Protesters throw cans, bottles, and barricades at the police. Garbage cans and newspaper boxes litter the streets.

11:55 am

Protesters smash windows at the Bank of America, 4th Avenue and Pike Street.

11:55 am

Protesters throw a newspaper box through the already-damaged window of McDonald's, 3rd Avenue and Pine Street.

Secretary of State Madeline Albright and U.S. Trade Representative Charles Barshefsky remain at the Westin Hotel because their protection details say the streets of Seattle are too dangerous for them to travel the few blocks to the opening ceremonies. A press conference with Barshefsky is canceled.

12:00 pm

The WTO Opening ceremony at the Convention Center is cancelled.

12:00 pm

Approximately 200 Anarchists use hammers to smash windows at Nordstrom, Nike Town, Planet Hollywood, and several other stores near 6th Avenue and Pike Street.

12:00 pm

WTO officials get the word out: the conference will continue.

12:15 pm

Starbucks is looted by protesters at 6th Avenue and Stewart Street.

12:15 pm

The clear film over the windows at Pacific Place, 6th Avenue and Pine Street, designed as an anti-graffiti measure, serves to prevent windows from being shattered.

12:20 pm

A State Patrol response team guarding dignitaries at the Westin Hotel takes no action as protesters vandalize a Starbucks 300 feet away. They are not authorized to take action against vandals.

12:50 pm

People's Assembly march arrives downtown at 4th Avenue and University Street.

1:00 pm

The AFL-CIO march arrives downtown at Westlake Center. When they converge with other protests, as many as 35,000 protesters jam the central business district.

2:00 pm

Plenary session of the WTO starts at the Convention Center. (Sponsored by WTO.)

2:00 pm

Pacific Place, Nordstrom, and The Bon Marche close and send their employees home.

3:00 pm

Benaroya Hall is damaged by protesters at 2nd Avenue and University Street.

Police run out of department-issued pepper spray. Officers take matters in their own hands and arrange to obtain supplies from police agencies in Auburn, Tukwila, Renton, and from the King County Jail and the State Department of Corrections. When supplies are collected, the officers drive as close to downtown as they can get. Plainclothes officers load the material into gym bags and knapsacks and run through crowds to resupply uniformed officers.

3:10 pm

Anarchists start a fire in a dumpster at 4th Avenue and Pike Street. Officers fire gas to disperse the crowd there. With each volley of gas, the protesters become more defiant.

3:15 pm

Clinton administration officials inform Mayor Schell that if the protesters are not cleared from the Central Business District, the WTO will be called off.

Several hundred protesters from the earlier Sierra Club march are involved in minor confrontations with police. A window is broken at McDonald's at 3rd Avenue and Pine Street.

4:00 pm

Protesters stand in front of Nike Town windows, 6th Avenue and Pine Street, to keep others from breaking them.

4:00 pm

A garbage truck is seized by protesters and they set a bonfire at 6th Avenue and Stewart Street.

4:00 pm

Protesters board Metro busses and assault drivers, pull battery plugs (disabling the busses) and slash tires. Metro service is suspended downtown. Because many bus routes go through downtown, this has the effect of shutting down the entire Metro transit system.

Benefit for locked-out Kaiser Aluminum workers is scheduled at the Mercer Arena by the United Steelworkers.

4:30 pm

Mayor Schell declares a state of emergency and establishes a 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. curfew on the area of downtown between Interstate-5 and the waterfront and between Yesler Way and Denny Way.

4:30 pm

Arrests begin at 6th Avenue and Pine Street because the Secret Service demands safe streets for President Clinton who is due to arrive in Seattle in a few hours.

4:30 pm

"I was in the trenches for two days and I was in the middle of it," one officer later stated. "Whenever we used tear gas or bullets with pepper gas, we warned people. We gave them five minutes to leave. When the first gas was deployed, we already were getting bottles thrown at us" (Officer Brett Smith).

4:45 pm

Governor Locke orders the National Guard and 300 State Troopers to assist Seattle Police. This is the first time in recent history that the National Guard is called into Seattle.

Police sweep through downtown, pushing protesters out of the curfew area with tear gas and pepper spray.

5:00 pm

As crowds begin to thin, police begin a major push to clear downtown using gas to force protesters to retreat from several locations.

6:00 pm

More than two dozen protesters, three police officers and two delegates are treated at hospitals for minor injuries.

6:00 pm

Police fire gas into a determined group of protesters at 6th Avenue and Pine Street and begin driving them east up Pine Street, toward Capitol Hill.

6:30 pm

Police temporarily halt their push up Pine Street at Boren Avenue in hopes that demonstrators will disperse.

7:00 pm

Debate between Ralph Nader et al. and Jagdish Rhagwati et al. is scheduled. at Seattle Town Hall, 1119 8th Avenue.
(Sponsored by Public Citizen, International Forum on Globalization, and The Nation.)

7:00 pm

A Seattle Police captain flies to Casper, Wyoming, to pick up a stock of tear gas from federal agents there.

7:30 pm

Police break up a group of demonstrators who had started a small bonfire at Pine Street and Melrose Avenue.

8:00 pm

Ministerial reception and dinner is scheduled at the Museum of Flight.

9:00 pm

Demonstrators blare Jimi Hendrix's version of the National Anthem at 4th Avenue and University Street as police move forward in a fog of gas.

9:00 pm

Protesters overturn and set fire to trash bins in front of Egyptian Theater and then block the intersection at Pine Street and Broadway. Police disperse the crowd which gathers again farther north on Broadway.

10:00 pm

Police bomb technicians detonate a suspected explosive device in a parking garage near the Convention Center. It turns out to be an unattended briefcase. Police use concussion grenades and tear gas to clear 300 to 400 protesters who had gathered nearby.